Unlikely Heir

He did not know since he was a boy that he would compete in
jiu-jitsu. He lives in England with his Polish wife, far from his
Brazilian kin. He has never felt thrust into a position to defend
the family name, which he has through his mother, Reila Gracie, who
split from his father, Rolls Gracie black belt Mauricio Motta
Gomes, when he was 5.

Everything the 29-year-old has done in jiu-jitsu, he chose to
do.

“Every other Gracie who did well in the family, he had always
trained in his father’s school, his father supported him a lot,
pushed him for years,” Gracie tells Sherdog.com in a telephone
interview from his London home. “I never had that because my father
never had his school. Even though he was a great jiu-jitsu fighter
and was really good in his time, he never taught. It was harder in
a way, but I got to make my own decision. It was, like, up to me to
push myself more.”

When Mauricio Motta Gomes did open his own academy, it was in the
United Kingdom, a world away from the Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
streets where Roger grew up playing as much street ball as
jiu-jitsu. Working with an English partner he met while in Japan,
Motta Gomes built interest in jiu-jitsu from the ground up in the
U.K. after opening his doors in 1998. Roger soon followed his
father across the ocean, away from mounting pressure.

File Photo

Gracie will face Trevor Prangley
on Jan. 29 in San Jose, Calif.

“Your friends, friends of your father and family,
your uncles, everybody everywhere you meet, the first thing they
ask is, ‘Oh, how you training? How much you training? You train
every day?’” Gracie says. “That’s the sort of thing you hear all
the time. If you say, ‘Oh I’m not training much,’ [they say] ‘What?
Why not? You’re a Gracie. You have to train.’ That’s the thing that
every Gracie boy deals with his whole life.”

It was not until he was about 16 years old that Roger decided to
forego college and devote his life to jiu-jitsu. Based in the U.K.,
he became a 10-time champion in world competition, in both the
super heavyweight and open weight divisions. He is generally
regarded as one of the best competition jiu-jitsu players there has
ever been.

One of his father’s early students was Steve Finan, a former
manager of the chart-topping U.K. pop act All Saints and a former
business partner of American Idol provocateur Simon Cowell. Finan
has watched Roger grow from a lanky young adult with a laser focus
on jiu-jitsu to a developing MMA fighter, one just as quick to
knock down a wrestler like Kevin
Randleman
with a knee as he is to snatch submissions after being
taken down himself.

“When you’re part of the thing as it’s evolving, the one thing you
realize is that these guys need experience, they need experience in
every sort of area,” says Finan, who today serves as Gracie’s
manager. “The rest of it doesn’t come overnight. You’ve got to do
the fights. You’ve got to take your time. You’ve got to make sure
you get into the habit of being professional about the training. I
think Roger will just keep going forward, all the time. He always
likes to push himself hard. He always likes to spar with the best
there is.”

Last year, UFC welterweight champion Georges
St. Pierre traveled to London to see a friend. He heard that
the accomplished Gracie ran an academy in the city, so he paid a
visit.

“I got my ass kicked pretty bad,” St. Pierre remembers. “I had to
stay, and it started from there.”

A heady exchange of knowledge commenced, and a partnership was
formed. Gracie helped St. Pierre train for his 2010 fights, and St.
Pierre traveled to London this month to help Gracie prepare for his
bout against Trevor
Prangley this Saturday at Strikeforce
“Diaz vs. Cyborg” in San Jose, Calif.

“

He’s a lot better
than people think.
He’s not only a
jiu-jitsu guy.
Roger, he’s a true
mixed martial artist.

”

-- Georges St. Pierre on Roger
Gracie

“[Roger] is very good at bringing the fight where
he wants it -- on the floor,” St. Pierre says. “He’s a lot better
than people think. He’s not only a jiu-jitsu guy. Roger, he’s a
true mixed martial artist.”

Working with the sport’s best wrestler was not the only chance
Gracie had to spar with elite talent in preparing for Prangley. The
son of retired Welsh boxing great Joe Calzaghe trains at Gracie’s
academy and was drawn to a recent training session when word spread
that St. Pierre was in town. The undefeated Calzaghe ended up
offering Gracie his assistance and some tips to defend Prangley’s
stout right hand.

Gracie anticipates Prangley trying to keep their fight standing. He
has been stressing his stand-up defense and working a jab that will
help him capitalize on his reach advantage -- a bit with Calzaghe
but mostly with U.K. boxing pro Clay O’Shea.

“It’s not a miracle. I’m not going to get amazingly good in
striking in a few months,” Gracie says. “But I hope it will be good
enough to keep [Prangley] away, just taking my time and just
waiting for the right opportunity to shoot and take him down.”